Whether having a ‘trust me, you can go left here’ argument with a mini-cab driver on a Friday night, or a ‘quickest way to the pub’ chat on your Sunday stroll, we’ve all had discussions that climax with an exasperated ‘look, let’s check the map.’ It’s the defining, who’s-the-leader settler. We believe it, trust it, and the map doesn’t lie. Fact.
So it’s embarrassing for all Kentishtowners, and London in general, that for anyone using a Barclays (or should we just say Boris?) Bike map, NW5 doesn’t exist. We’re hardly the New World (or even the suburbs, nestling as we do just beyond King’s Cross and Camden), but we’re not included in one part of London’s infrastructure network. It seems especially odd as the bikes pootle way less centrally east (Bromley By Bow, anyone?) At least we’re in good company, as neither are Islington, Dalston, Highbury on the map…
But still. And in the spirit of less moaning, more action, the Camden Green Party (full disclosure – I’m a member) have launched a petition to get Boris to run cycle-hire docking stations all the way through Kentish Town up to the bottom of Swains Lane, and the Lido. Why does this matter?
It’s actually more than just cartographic snobbery, ensuring we’re not excluded like South East London on the old tube maps in the eighties. The 2001 Census showed that Kentish Town electoral ward had the highest number of residents who cycled to work in Camden (6%) – and that was long before the likes of Wiggo, Cav and Pendleton answered Outkast’s famous question: ‘What’s cooler than being cool’? (Bikes).
So in 2012 it’s safe to assume that even more Kentishtowners use bikes, and would want to. The best thing about them is that they are almost cheaper-than-chips. You get an annual membership of the scheme for just £45, that’s 12p a day. So if your bike commute takes you under 30 minutes, that’s an instant potential saving of hundreds of pounds a year compared to the tube or bus. And for the casual user, £1 for 24hrs beats the seven or eight pound sting of a zone 1-2 day out on the Oyster.
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The next best thing is that the bikes are quicker and more reliable than the bus. If any other Kentishtowner is sick of waiting for a bus outside Camden tube, or feels like they’ve spent half their life willing back to work the C2 drivers at the bottom of Highgate West Hill while they take a lengthy break – then I urge you to sign this petition to ask for a better choice.
For our wider community, extending the whole public transport network to NW5 can only be a good thing. Current TfL regulations on how far docking stations can be from each other means that it’s likely three or four stations would be need to be installed between Camden and Swains Lane. Therefore trade for our local businesses could grow if the area is made accessible to the thousands of tourists who use the bikes on the weekends, when commuters stay at home. And more bikes on the road equals less congestion, less pollution, and quicker journeys for those who do need to drive up the road. Maybe even more parking spaces for the people who genuinely need it. Because at the end of Highgate Road lies the jewel in Kentish Town’s crown, Hampstead Heath.
Given the number of people who use the Heath, especially at weekends, surely it makes sense to make the Heath as accessible as possible. The cycle-hire scheme is an asset to London, but we deserve a scheme that reaches London’s top destinations. TfL have just announced that they’re going west – but what about the rest? So whether you’re a driver, a cyclist, a trader, a swimmer, heath-lover, or just care about our area, let’s show Boris how much we care, and demand he put NW5 on the map.
So sign here, Kentishtowners! Don’t delay now.
Words & Pics: Tim Sowula
13 thoughts on “Why It Matters: Boris Bikes for NW5”
This could tie in with a campaign to get the relevant authorities to improve cycling provision on the Heath. I appreciate that there are all sorts of arguments for prioritising the interests of pedestrian park users, but one should at least be able to do a loop on the Heath by bike rather than just cross from one entrance to another.
done! Definitely need bikes up our way.
I don’t mind signing a petition for those bikes but please stop calling them Boris bikes. Ken had plans to get those bikes pre-Boris. Boris doesn’t deserve the credit or publicity.
Thanks to everyone for comments, and for signing the petition. Nearly a hundred new supporters today, which is great! We’ll be putting the Mayor on the spot with questions in the London Assembly – so the more people who sign, the more he has to answer. Please share this with your friends if you haven’t done already.
Flexischooling – much as I am loathe to give the Mayor any more free publicity, I do think he deserves some – not all but some – credit for deciding to follow up Ken’s plans and subsequently extend the scheme. Rightly or wrongly, people know them as ‘Boris Bikes’ and we want to lobby Boris to get his bikes to more places, like our place, K Town.
But it would be lovely to have a better name for them. In Paris the sheme is ‘Vélib’, which is a great mix of the French for bikes and ‘free’. In Montreal they’re know as ‘Bixi’ I think (which I don’t like). In NYC they’re ‘Citi Bikes’, because sponsored by Citi Bank. Suggestions for anything better than ‘Boris’? Just comment below:
I doubt that anyone who’s used one of these bikes would ever contemplate commuting regularly into town on one from the upper reaches of Highgate road? Intentionally i’m sure, but Clerkenwell Road is as steep a hill i’d be comfortable trying to climb on one. If you we’re so skint you’d live in hackney and save up for a slightly more practical single speed machine. That said Barclays bikes would be a useful addition especially as we’re all paying for the anyway through our taxes
We would also point out to Avi that being skint and living in Hackney really don’t tally these days…
If you lived at the top of Highgate Rd then its all downhill in to town! Another advantages of the bikes is for people who live in places where you can’t story a bike easily. When I lived on St Albans Rd, I had to lock my bike round the back of our flats and the wheels got nicked. So this is about allowing people who can’t afford a bike, or have nowhere to put a bike, still get all the benefits from cycling.
These bikes aren’t an efficient way of promoting cycling, though. Cost is something like 8,000 per bike overall – and the borough has to pay. Much better use the money to build high-quality safe cycle infrastructure, and let people use their own bikes –
That’s a fair point, but the hire bikes are a very effective way of enabling people who don’t have their own bikes, or don’t have anywhere to keep a bike even if they could afford one, to still get about and access the Heath and the rest of the London-wide network. They might be an expensive way of promoting cycling, but they’re a very egalitarian and extremely cheap way at point-of-use. Not to mention the wider benefits they bring to the area in terms of reduced traffic congestion, pollution etc.
I strongly support this campaign and it is something that we at Camden council have been pushing the Mayor on for some time. Well done for this initiative, Tim, and, as I said to you on Friday, local councillors will be very pleased to work with you to push this case further and harder.
Cycling has significantly increased in Camden is recent years and encouraging more people to use this healthy and sustainable method is a key priority that cuts across all our transport policies. We listen closely to views from people like the Camden Cycling Campaign and will have some new policy announcements in the months ahead to further encourage cycling in Camden.
Unfortunately the Mayor is prioritising expanding the cycle hire scheme in South-West London as this question from our new Labour London Assembly member, Andrew Dismore, from June reveals:
Cycle High Scheme
Question No: 1577 / 2012
Andrew Dismore
Will you extend the cycle hire scheme to Chalk Farm and Kentish Town?
Written response from the Mayor
“I view the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme as an expanding programme subject to topography, operational considerations and available funding. As part of the recent expansion of the cycle hire network, the scheme saw an extension to Camden Town, with the northernmost docking station on Castlehaven Road towards Chalk Farm.
I have asked Transport for London (TfL) to prepare plans for an expansion of the scheme to the west and southwest for Phase 3. Phase 3 proposes a south-western expansion to include substantial parts of Wandsworth and Hammersmith & Fulham, as well as additional areas in Lambeth and Kensington & Chelsea. Any further extension of the scheme is dependent on the factors listed above.”
Despite the disappointing approach of the Mayor, Camden is still looking for ways in which we can bring the cycle hire scheme further north. Some sites in south Kentish Town have already been mooted and if we can get the support from TfL and local residents then we will do what we can to introduce new docking stations.
Let’s keep pressing on this cyclists of Kentish Town!
Thanks very much for your support Phil. I certainly hope that a combination of people power and cross-party political pressure (the Camden Tories have also tweeted their support of the petition) can get the Mayor to budge on this.
I completely reject Boris’ ‘topography’ argument, because there are docking stations at Angel and Pentonville Road or City Road are far meaner hills than the gentle climb from Camden up to the Heath. Clearly there are cost-barriers to extending the scheme everywhere, but I’d love to see the cost-benefit analysis that I presume was applied to the approved expansion zone, and find out what is different about NW5.
Betsy (comment above) has suggested that the costs are put up by Camden Council – is that true?
Darren Johnson will be trying to ask Boris questions about this in Mayoral Question Time, if Andrew or Tom Copley want to join him then the more the merrier as far as I’m concerned. And of course, we can always just tweet the Mayor directly @mayoroflondon to say we want #bikes4nw5
Like many other social schemes, “Boris” bikes has its share of supporters and detractors. The one concern that both sides seem to have ignored is where they should be situated.
For those who are already up-in-ams about cyclists on the Heath, placing them near the Lido or Parliament Hill Fields is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. For those who do not see this as major obstacle, the issue becomes more one of geography.
Does it make sense to encroach upon the already scarce parking and footpath space of Swain’s Lane, currently undergoing its own battle to oppose a major redevelopment that may radically alter the very nature of the Lane…or should the bikes be situated on St.Alban’s Road, a much wider and more accessible location adjacent to the Heath, bus stops and away from the traffic of Swain’s Lane.
Regardless of the outcome, it is important that we take a look at the trees as well as the forest and consider not only the visitors that bikes will attract, but also the residents that they will affect.